Migration and Citizenship: Statements Dail Éireann — 2026-09-30 ============================================================ Eoghan Kenny (LAB), Cork North-Central I welcome the opportunity to speak on this topic. I have been receiving a significant amount of correspondence in recent weeks, as, I am sure, have all TDs, on the proposed citizenship changes. I am totally against the changes to the residency period requirement to apply for citizenship. They are totally unnecessary. This is an attempt by the Government to appease a vocal minority. On a personal level, my best friend, Amir, who came to Ireland from Tunisia three years ago, despite opportunities to study in France, Germany and the Netherlands, is currently doing a PhD in chemical engineering and air quality at UCC. Over the past three years, Amir has represented Ireland on several occasions in Europe, speaking about the work UCC and Ireland are doing on air quality and climate change. This demonstrates that immigrants to Ireland provide invaluable contributions - in this case, in scientific research. Immigrants like him, who provide a vital resource to Ireland, are in the situation when they complete their studies of having built up no residency requirement credit. That is a disgrace. Ukrainians are in the same scenario, with their time here not counting towards citizenship. How on earth does four years of scientific research on behalf of the State count for nothing? How does five years working in our health service count for nothing? We are going to lose these people to other European countries. When the realisation of what that means comes, it will be too late. People who have come to Ireland for refuge from war or famine and immigrants who come here to work and have a better life should never be scapegoated for the failures of the State. Immigrants did not cause the housing crisis. Greed, landlordism and the failures of successive governments caused it. Immigrants did not cause a stagnation in wages while the cost of living soared. The free market and government neglect caused that. Immigrants did not cause young Irish people to emigrate. That was brought about by the economy successive governments created. I absolutely acknowledge my party's involvement, while in government, in failing to stem emigration from Ireland. For the Government to use citizenship in this way, to appease the anti-emigrant sentiment that is present in Ireland, is utterly disgraceful. The Minister of State and his colleagues should be absolutely ashamed of what they are doing. I hope he hears me when I say that they cannot out-far-right the far right. That never works and they will not win because the far right is not reasonable. Of course, it would not be the first time that the other party in government, Fianna Fáil, did not stand with immigrants and instead chose to scapegoat them to appease racist sentiment. The 2004 referendum, with its associated fearmongering and dog-whistling campaign, stripped Irish-born children of foreign-born parents of birthright citizenship. An inscription inside the Irish passport states: "It is the entitlement and birthright of every person born on the island of Ireland, which includes its islands and seas, to be part of the Irish nation." That is what it says on our passports but it is a lie. I am proud that the Labour Party stood against the 2004 referendum. We likewise stand against the changes being discussed today. We are proudly an anti-racist party and we will defend the rights of all workers in Ireland and all the people of Ireland, no matter the circumstances of their birth. It is worth noting some of the facts. Some 80% of the population usually resident in Ireland is Irish born. Approximately 87% of the population is white. Non-Irish citizens make up only 15% of the population. Ireland has between 70,000 and 163,000 empty homes. We are at full employment, with approximately 30,000 job vacancies. Ireland is in no way overrun, as some would suggest. My staff and I deal with multiple immigration cases every single week. It is not easy to come to Ireland to work and it is not easy to stay here. It takes a significant civic engagement. We need immigrants. We should welcome those who have made a life here for themselves, contributed to our society and worked in our State services. They should be given céad míle fáilte, not be faced with a stern Department of justice trying to appease bigots. I remind the House of a statement by the founder of the Labour Party, James Connolly: "Let no Irishman cast a stone at the foreigner; he may hit his own clansman." --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-30/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-30